Reviews & features: Theatre, Anna Millar
- Filtered by:
- Anna Millar
- Theatre
Clinton The Musical
17 Aug 2012
Ex-president inspires high-energy, catchy musical from talented ensemble
Former United States president Bill Clinton should offer any theatre production – let alone an all-singing, all-dancing musical – some great inspiration for material is a given. But, from his inauguration through to his sexual relations with ‘that…
Slice
7 Aug 2012
Mel Giedroyc's debut is a bittersweet lunchtime treat
This promising playwriting début from Mel Giedroyc (of Mel & Sue fame) arrives at the Fringe fresh from a successful run at Glasgow’s Oran Mor earlier this year, and has lost none of its emotional verve in transit. Three troubled sisters congregate in…
Peter Panic
7 Aug 2012
Dystopian Peter Pan fails to inspire an emotional response
Showing an altogether darker, dystopian view of JM Barrie’s titular character of Peter Pan, Function Theatre brings together a brutal tale of morality, mob rule and the power of the State, stripping Barrie’s oeuvre of its innocence in the…
Jigsy
6 Aug 2012
Nostalgic yet brave tale of a comedian past his prime, starring Les Dennis
It’s a brave man who takes on the role of an ageing, fading comedian. Braver still, if you’re Les Dennis – as well known for his Family Fortunes success, as his more recent foray into the dismal world of Celebrity Big Brother. Both are swiftly…
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs explores impact of Apple on our lives
25 Jul 2012
Grant O'Rourke performs Mike Daisey's controversial play Edinburgh Fringe
When he died in October last year more than one million followers flooded the Apple website, sharing their memories of Steve Jobs. Commentators hailed him a modern day Da Vinci while pundits pondered the man affectionately known as Apple’s Messiah.
Some Small Love Story
23 Aug 2011
A gem with a young but talented cast
Theatrical tales about love – particularly love lost – can so easily be overly saccharine, lacking the depth and sentiment to truly engage. Not so here. Stripped back simplicity is to the fore, as four excellent young performers reveal two great love…
Eight
23 Aug 2011
Eight beautifully-written stories impressively told
A selection of eight stories are impressively told here in monologue rotation. Among them are grieving art gallery owner Andre, Bobby, a struggling single Mum and Jude, a well-to-do lad coming of age on foreign shores. Ella Hickson’s characters are…
Doris Day Can F**k Off
23 Aug 2011
Musical one-man experiment
The concept for Greg McLaren’s show should certainly be applauded: for a number of weeks he went round the UK communicating to people through song, taping his experience as he went. Accompanied by a sound deck, guitar and gold lame jacket, this is the…
An Instinct for Kindness
17 Aug 2011
Dignitas tale told with dignity
Last year, Chris Larner accompanied his ex-wife Allyson to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and watched as she drank a liquid that would swiftly end her life. Here, with just a simple chair as a prop, Larner recounts the days, weeks and years leading…
From the Fire
14 Aug 2011
Tightly directed show based on New York’s Triangle Factory Fire of 1911
There is some formidable talent at play in this tightly directed show, telling the story of New York’s Triangle Factory Fire of 1911, in which hundreds perished due to poor working conditions. Although set 100 years ago, the themes resonate today, as…
Shhh: The Musical
8 Aug 2011
Enthusiasm let down by unoriginal script and forgettable songs
There is little doubting the enthusiasm of this young cast, as they do their best with a ‘romcom’ script about finding love in a bookshop. Sadly their energy is largely wasted on a script lacking in originality and punch. The characters are roundly…
Minute After Midday
8 Aug 2011
Pared-down performance based on Omagh bombing
Pared-down performances resonate here as three very different stories are told, in overlapping monologues, from the day the Omagh bombing devastated Ireland. A young survivor, a widow, and the driver who left the car bomb on Lower Market Street, relive…
Toulouse-Lautrec: The Musical
8 Aug 2011
Japanese one-man show dedicated but lacking in pace and musical gravitas
Toulouse Lautrec’s life was a colourful one, worthy of musical exploration, and this Japanese company’s dedication is admirable, in a one-man show, helmed by Japanese performer/songwriter Jun Sawaki. But while Sawaki undoubtedly offers his all to the…
Corn Exchange theatre company bring Man of Valour to Edinburgh 2011
27 Jul 2011
One-man action movie from acclaimed Irish company
It’s a scenario familiar to many. A lonely office worker tries to escape his humdrum existence, living out a fantasy world of swashbuckling make-belief and mind-blowing heroism. ‘Everyone can relate to it,’ says actor and co-writer Paul Reid. ‘It’s…
Four site-specific shows to catch at Edinburgh 2011
20 Jul 2011
What Remains and You Once Said Yes among highlights
What Remains. Theatre company Grid Iron celebrates ten years on the Fringe with this eerie piece set in the bowels of Edinburgh University. Music comes courtesy of composer David Paul Jones. Even in Edinburgh/Glasgow Poet Ishbel McFarlane takes the…
Five cabaret shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2011
20 Jul 2011
Meow Meow, Ali McGregor, Le Gateau Chocolat and Cabaret Whore among highlights
Meow Meow. A firm Fringe favourite, this purrfectly glitzy performer brings her edgy post-feminist cabaret woes to the International Festival, as part of a much-anticipated work-in-progress. When you’re racking up over 6m hits on YouTube, chances are…
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011 - sneak preview
23 May 2011
Liberace, Finnish a capella groups and iPad fairy tales just some of the coming attractions
Whether it’s origami genitalia, homosexual deities or political commentary on the Lockerbie bombing, Edinburgh’s Fringe seldom arrives with a whimper but rather a ruddy great roar. June sees the official launch of 2011’s line-up, but we thought we…
Edinburgh International Festival 2011 programme keeps an eye on the East
23 Mar 2011
National Ballet of China, Ravi Shankar, Philip Glass among highlights
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra raise the curtain of the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival in style this year with a performance Robert Schumann’s exotic musical Das Paradies und die Peri, one highlight from an EIF programme that boasts acts from…
Über Hate Gang
23 Aug 2010
Explosive and well executed play on terrorism
The audience become (un)willing members of a terrorist act in this well-executed play, as the Über Hate Gang plan to blow up the theatre. A slightly meandering start gives way to some explosive confrontations as personal rifts and deeply hidden secrets…
Speechless
17 Aug 2010
Giving voice to a powerful story
As the familiar strains of ‘Jerusalem’ play out, a pair of twins, June and Jennifer, emerge onto the stage. Unable to find a language to communicate with the outside world they are almost silent, speaking only to each other, creating a fantasy world in…
The Man Who Was Thursday
14 Aug 2010
Injects some far-fetched fun into a light-hearted romp
This young, enthusiastic company injects some far-fetched fun into a light-hearted romp about the war on terror, in a noughties reimagining of the original novel by GK Chesterton. A cheeky wink to the left-not-knowing-what-the-right-hand’s doing is…
Elsie and Mairi Go to War
14 Aug 2010
High on initial interest but short on the requisite drama
This well-acted tale follows two heroines of WWI dispatched to Belgium as ambulance drivers. Using extracts from the women’s diaries and contemporary press interviews, the play is adapted from a book by Diane Atkinson, who here ill-advisedly narrates…
Step inside a payphone booth for a spot of storytelling
12 Aug 2010
The Invisible Dot provides audiences with a new form of entertainment
What with the Fringe being the Fringe, it’s only right and proper that some of this year’s shows should crop up in the most unlikely of places. And so it is that The Invisible Dot have brought four old British Telecom payphone booths to this year’s…
The Gospel at Colonus reveals authentic traditions at its heart
11 Aug 2010
Reworking of Greek tragedy takes centre stage at EIF
His celebrated version of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House cast dwarf actors opposite Amazonian women performers while his reimagining of Peter Pan using pint-sized puppets made audiences look anew at JM Barrie’s classic children’s tale. Now theatrical maverick…
More Light Please
9 Aug 2010
In search of further illumination
The emotional and economic reality of emigration is fertile ground for theatre, and More Light Please provides another addition to the canon with its story of young Natalia moving from Poland to Dublin in search of a better life. The scene is set in…
